OC

or the OC

What does OC mean?

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The acronym OC can stand for all kinds of things: Orange County (California), originalcharacter, OxyContin, of course, offensive coordinator, officer commanding, and original content ... you name it, OC stands for it.

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Where does OC come from?

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Just south of Los Angeles, Orange County, California is one of the sunniest and richest spots in the country. Sometime in the 1990s, people began referring to it as the OC for short, California totes loves the abbrevs.

Outside SoCal, the nickname was popularized by the hit 2003–07 TV show TheO.C., which chronicled the life and times of high schoolers living in Orange County. Other regions, like Orange County, Florida or Oil City, Pennsylvania, may use OC.

on “the oc,” johnny falls off a cliff and dies. at his funeral, they sign a surfboard for him. just now noticing it says things like like “sucks 2 b u, bruh” and “nice drop bruh!” what a way to honor him lol. (we’re past spoiler alerts if this aired 12 years ago, right?)

OC is also used as an acronym in the cosplay and anime communities, among others, who may design a character of their own creation or make variations on existing characters (e.g. a hijabi Captain America). This practice is known as creating an original character or OC, an abbreviation found online since at least the 1990s.

OC is an occasional abbreviation for OxyCotin, a brand-name drug of the powerful and highly addictive painkiller opioid oxycodone. The drug was first introduced in 1996.

Of course, using OC or oc as an acronym for of course spread as the internet rose in the 1990s, along with other acronyms like lol(laugh out loud) or nbd (no big deal).

In American football contexts, OC means OffensiveCoordinator—the job title of the coach who figures out how the team is going to actually score points. We have evidence for this acronym online in the 1990s.

Ben Roethlisberger (elbow) has missed two straight practices. Hopeful for Friday’s practice? “We’ll see how I feel tomorrow,” he said. OC Randy Fichtner said he’d like to think Josh Dobbs is ready to play if needed.

In British military contexts, OC has stood for officer commanding since the early 1900s. This person is in charge of a smaller military unit, usually less than a hundred soldiers or so.

In online message boards, OC can stand for original content. This means the poster has generated the material of the post as opposed to re-posting existing content. This abbreviation takes off with social platforms like Reddit in the 2000s.

Using OC as an acronym for OxyContin or of course is more common in digital communication. Football fans take to OC for offensive coordinator online during the season—and off, as football fandom knows no limits.

Within the cosplay and fanfic community, especially surrounding anime and manga, OC is original character. People on social-media forums will often share their own OCs that they’ve created or help people design their own.